Candle mold

ABSTRACT

A candle mold for quantity production of candles, the mold itself being very inexpensive to produce by reason of its simplicity, the upper wick-holding element being formed of sheet metal with a downwardly turned flange which engages slits in the upper end of the main shell of the mold to locate the wick accurately, and the lower wick-holding element being a slotted inflexible clip fitted with a split washer or pad of resilient material, the latter sealing the lower end of the mold and the inflexible clip presenting undue deformation and failure of the washer as a sealing element.

[ 51 Mar. 26, 1974 CANDLE MOLD [76] Inventor: Joseph F. OLaughlin, Gavilan Rd.,

Fallbrook, Calif. 92028 [22] Filed: June 21, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 154,892

[52] U.S. Cl. 249/94, 24/81 F, 249/51,

249/139, 249/143, 425/803 [51] Int. Cl B22d 5/00 [58] Field of Search 249/93, 94, 51, 48, 17,

249/139, 143, 96, 97, 204; 425/117, DIG. 803, 803; 24/130, 264, 81 F FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 349,521 3/1905 France 425/803 Primary ExaminerRobert D. Baldwin Assistant Examiner-DeWalden W. Jones Attorney, Agent, or FirmRoy L. Knox [57] ABSTRACT A candle mold for quantity production of candles, the mold itself being very inexpensive to produce by reason of its simplicity, the upper wick-holding element being formed of sheet metal with a downwardly turned flange which engages slits in the upper end of the main shell of the mold to locate the wick accurately, and the lower wick-holding element being a slotted inflexible clip fitted with a split washer or pad of resilient material, the latter sealing the lower end of the mold and the inflexible clip presenting undue deformation and failure of the washer as a sealing element.

2 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures CANDLE MOLD BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Prior art candle molds have employed split washers but these washers, being held by a knot in the wick, leaked wax if the tension of the wick was either too little or too much, the latter circumstance causing the washer to deform and the split therein to open. The prior art upper wick-holding structure, in quantity production equipment usually has consisted in somewhat more costly elements such as alligator clips engaging the upper end of the shell and carrying a spanner bar to which the wick had to be tied. Accuracy of placement of the wick could only be achieved with careful and often rather tedious and time consuming labor and the length of wick required was always considerably in excess of the final length in the finished candle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As claimed, this invention solves the problems mentioned above in providing a lower end wick-holding structure comprising a split washer or pad of resilient material which is pressed up against the underside of the base of the mold by a flat inflexible clip which prevents leak-producing flexing of the washer while assuring proper sealing against leakage of the wax. The upper end wick-holding structure is a cross-piece which directly grasps the wick and which is easily and positively located centrally of the shell.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the mold assembly;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the mold;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view thereof; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the lower end wick-holding clip.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In a preferred form of my invention a main mold portion, which will be referred to herein as the shell 10, extends vertically from a base 12 to a height somewhat in excess of the length of the candle desired. This shell may be of any horizontal cross-sectional shape desired, the commonest being a recti-cylindrical form but as is well known, the shell should have a definite taper to facilitate extraction of the formed candle. The base is secured, by welding or the equivalent, to the smaller end of the shell which is conveniently considered the lower end 14 of the shell and the base is preferably square with notched corners to facilitate downturning of edge portions 16 which are terminally return-bent as at 18, to space the main portion of the base 12 above the level of a supporting surface such as a shelf or bench.

A wick 20 must be supported centrally of the mold and to accomplish this wick-holding means is provided. The base 12 is centrally apertured as at 22 and the lower end 24 of the wick is secured by an inflexible flat clip 26 which has a tapered slot 28 to grasp the wick. A finger hold 30 on the clip 26 may take the form of a simple flange at one edge.

When the hot wax is poured into the mold the aperture 22 must be sealed around the wick and this is efficiently accomplished by the washer or pad 32 which is secured to the side of the clip 26 remote from the fingerhold 30 and this washer is slit at 34 in line with slot 28. Since the clip 26 is flat and inflexible it presses the washer upwardly into sealing relation under the tension of the wick, and the prior art difficulty of leaking of hot wax at this point is obviated. In this regard it may be noted that in prior art usage of a split washer the slight under-tensioning of the wick caused leaking and overtensioning also resulted in leaking because the washer deformed and the slit tended to open.

To hold the wick at the upper end of the mold a cross-piece 36 spans the shell, being slightly greater in length than the diameter or transverse dimension of the shell and having means to facilitate the centering of the wick. As illustrated the cross-piece has a tapered slot 38 to grasp the wick and a downturned extending flange 40 to engage slits 42 disposed in the upper edge 44 of the shell 10 slightly removed from a diameter of the shell so that the wick portion engaged in the slot 38 is centralized in the shell. The cross-piece is preferably fashioned from sheet metal and is slightly springy to enable the user to apply a slight tension on the wick.

The operation of this invention will be obvious from a consideration of the foregoing. The downturned portions 16 of the base provide adequate space for the clip 26 and washer 32, and the cross-piece is spaced, in use, from the adjacent end of the candle being formed as indicated by the line 46 in FIG. 2. It may also be noted that there is no waste of wick as :in prior art methods and there is no tedious procedure. The base is preferably square and the slits 42 are oriented in the direction of a diagonal of the base so that the ends of the crosspiece 36 will not be bumped inadvertently when the molds are nested or shelved together.

I claim:

1. A candle mold comprising:

a vertical, slightly tapered, elongated tubular shell having a single, unbroken wall;

a base closing the lower end of said shell and having a wick-receiving aperture;

a cross-piece removably mounted on and bridging the top of the shell and having an upper end wickholding means;

a lower end wick-holding means on the under side of said base;

each of said wick-holding means having a tapered slit in which a wick can be wedged for temporary securement without knotting;

said cross-piece being slightly resilient to tauten a wick, and said cross-piece having a longitudinal flange depending from the edge thereof opposite from said upper and wick-holding means, and the upper end of said shell has two flange-engaging slots therein slightly removed from the ends of a diameter of said shell so that said upper wick-holding means is located centrally of the top of said shelf.

tected against inadvertent dislodgement. 

1. A candle mold comprising: a vertical, slightly tapered, elongated tubular shell having a single, unbroken wall; a base closing the lower end of said shell and having a wickreceiving aperture; a cross-piece removably mounted on and bridging the top of the shell and having an upper end wick-holding means; a lower end wick-holding means on the under side of said base; each of said wick-holding means having a tapered slit in which a wick can be wedged for temporary securement without knotting; said cross-piece being slightly resilient to tauten a wick, and said cross-piece having a longitudinal flange depending from the edge thereof opposite from said upper and wick-holding means, and the upper end of said shell has two flange-engaging slots therein slightly removed from the ends of a diameter of said shell so that said upper wick-holding means is located centrally of the top of said shelf.
 2. A candle according to claim 1 wherein said cross-piece extends exteriorly on opposite sides of said shell for ease in holding, and said base is correspondingly extended to prevent inadvertent bumping and dislodgement of the cross-piece when a plurality of the molds are shelved together said base also defining space within which said lower end wick-holding means is protected against inadvertent dislodgement. 